Using Conversation Analysis, this article explores the ways in which teasing is employed as an interactional tool to respond to learner-initiated departures in videotaped adult English as Foreign Language classrooms. The analysis focuses on the moments of classroom interaction where student contributions and behaviours initiate shifts from the…

Grammar competition has been proposed as a model for second language (L2) acquisition. Variational Learning provides a framework within which to investigate the idea of grammar competition as the model requires a marriage of quantitative properties of the input with Universal Grammar. A diachronic variational model of grammar competition is…

Many ESL instructors are generally in agreement with the belief that it is essential that students should be assisted in developing critical thinking skills while being engaged in their language learning process, especially those learning the target language at a higher level (Stern, 1985; Dickinson, 1991; McKay, 2001; Terry, 2007; Van, 2009;…

In this article the authors report on the use of a scaffolding pedagogy (Gibbons, 2009), informed by systemic functional linguistics, to support the writing of English language learners in middle years curriculum learning. They focus on the work of one teacher and her English class across the first 18 months of a longitudinal design-based literacy…

Drawing on data from three English classrooms at two Chinese universities, this paper documents the turn-taking patterns that the teachers and students developed over time and explores how these patterns affected students' opportunities to participate in classroom discourse. The data were collected through observations, audio- and video-taping,…

In this article, we examine the relationship between classroom talk, teacher-student roles and paradigms for literacy and learning in two ninth-grade English Language Arts classes. Our goal was to understand how these roles and practices socialized students into norms for academic language and literacy as they read and wrote poetry in preparation…

Using an exploratory case study approach, the language use of five bilingual special education teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) with disabilities was examined. Audio tapes, classroom observations, and teacher interviews yielded data on the language used by the bilingual teachers. Data revealed information on the frequency of the use of…

For this article we aimed to understand the emergence of English as a second language for a newly immigrated Mexican student, a native speaker of Spanish, enrolled in a mainstream kindergarten classroom, who was undergoing the "silent period" (Krashen, 1981). Applying ecological approaches that emphasize learners in relationship with their…

This document consists of the four issues (Spring 1988, Fall 1988, Fall 1989, Fall 1990) of Volume 1 of the serial publication "Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education" (TPFLE). TPFLE is the official journal of the Foreign Language Education Program of the University of Texas at Austin. These four issues contain 6, 8, 5, and 7 papers each,…

It is shown that, although native English speakers routinely use subject-verb-object questions for specific functions and in informal discourse, this question form rarely appears in textbooks or presentations used in English-as-a-Second-Language classrooms. Thus, language presented in these classes may not expose students to the complete range of…

A framework for analyzing and evaluating classroom interaction is proposed that links the social and psychological purposes underlying the communication with resultant discourse in terms of patterns of interaction. (76 references) (JL)

Issues and patterns in second language learning are discussed, drawing on a 1985 study with learners of English as a second language in Australia. Discussion begins with an analysis of the process of learning one form of verb marking, the ending "-ing." The inherent complexity of this form in English is examined, and ways in which…

Explores specific classroom language used by students for whom English is a second language. (HOD)